China's government is latest Anonymous victim

The hacker collective Anonymous is going after the Chinese government, posting messages on several local government websites protesting Internet restrictions in China, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Anonymous targeted several government sites, including the Central Business District in Chengdu and a sub-district office in the city of Dalian, with messages expressing solidarity with the Chinese people and predicting the fall of the nation's Communist regime.

“Dear Chinese government, you are not infallible, today websites are hacked, tomorrow it will be your vile regime that will fall,” read the message, which was accompanied by audio of The Who's song "Baba O'Riley." “So expect us because we do not forgive, never. What you are doing today to your Great People, tomorrow will be inflicted to you. With no mercy.”

The hacks, which Anonymous announced via the Twitter feed @AnonymousChina on March 30, also appeared on the websites of several dozen Chinese companies.

Some of the sites remained blocked April 5, still displaying the Anonymous messages along with instructions for circumventing the Chinese government's restrictions on Internet use.

Melissa Chan, reporting for Al Jazeera, said the hack marked only the second time Anonymous had targeted China's government. "The first one a few months ago had been a corporate attack against a Chinese company and it had exposed corporate fraud. This time, of course, the message was more general about online censorship in China," Chan said.

Chan said it was noteworthy that Anonymous chose to hack smaller local and regional government sites rather than the central government.

The latest hack comes a couple of months after Anonymous took down a cybersecurity advice website run by the Federal Trade Commission. That hack, reported by GCN, was in response to proposed anti-piracy laws being debated in Congress and the arrests of the file-sharing website Megaupload's leaders.